'I have never found that a cultivation of the elegancies of life, or a literary taste, has unfitted females placed in moderate circumstances, for attending to their domestic duties.'
(Editorial, no. 1, October 27, 1832)

The Ladies' Penny Gazette,
1832-34

The Ladies' Penny Gazette, published by the proprietors of The Penny Novelist and other penny dreadfuls, aimed to 'educate' the tastes and accomplishments of the wives of farmers and tradesmen - women of the 'middling classes of society'. Much of each 8-page issue was devoted to light fiction and descriptions of the latest fashions, although most also included a popular, often quite long, piece of music arranged for the piano or harp. In 1834 it merged with The Penny Novelist to form The Englishwoman, celebrating the first issue of the new title with an attractive coloured plate of the fifteen-year-old Princess Victoria.

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